Kevin Anderson will miss Roland Garros with elbow injury

South Africa's Kevin Anderson will miss the second Grand Slam of the year at Roland Garros after pulling out of the clay court season.

Kevin Anderson celebrates winning a game in the fourth set against John Isner during the men's semi final match on day eleven of the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Wimbledon.

World Number Six Kevin Anderson has pulled out of the clay court season to enable him to recover from a nagging elbow injury and will miss the year’s second Grand Slam Roland Garros.

Anderson bowed out of Roland Garros in the fourth round in 2018 before enjoying a good run at SW19. Anderson was the eptiome of dogged determination and reached the Wimbledon final for the first time.

South Africa’s pre-eminent singles player will return to action at the Queens Club where he was knocked out in the first round last year.

“I wanted to let you all know that I will unfortunately be missing the clay season this year. After discussing with my doctors and team, we thought the best decision is to rest and rehab my elbow injury for a few more weeks,” Anderson wrote on Twitter. “I will keep working hard each day to get healthy again in time for grass.”

The elbow injury has plagued Anderson’s season in 2019 after a career best outing on the ATP Tour in 2018. The 32-year-old said that he felt this decision was best for his career in the long term.

“I know this is the right decision for the longterm in the career. I will also miss seeing the fans there, but I appreciate all of your support and look forward to seeing you again soon,” he added.

Anderson won the Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune, India at the turn of the year but after that has played just two further tournaments in 2019. He was knocked out of the Australian Open in the second round and made the quarterfinals of the Miami Open in March, where he lost to Roger Federer.

Earlier this week Anderson moved back into sixth spot on the rankings ahead of Japan’s Kei Nishikori. Nishikori will, at the very least, reclaim sixth after advancing to the third round of the Barcelona Open this week.